Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a shield-shaped side-wall protection element for a vehicle tire. The invention further relates to a protective device for vehicle tires.
Side-wall protection elements serve to protect the side walls of vehicle tires against mechanical damage such as caused by sharp-edged boulders or other elements that may cause damage to the tire side wall. In the mining sector, particularly in surface mining, vehicles such as large dump trucks often move though areas where sharp-edged material is a danger to the tires. Any protection fully enclosing a tire, such as protection chains, is not desirable for such vehicles because they reduce vehicle speed and increase fuel consumption. It is for this reason therefore necessary to protect only the side walls of the tires. Known side protection elements are configured, for example, as annular discs which are attached to a wheel rim and at least partially cover the tire side wall. Annular disks being made of one piece there have the drawback that a force acting upon the annular disk in one spot can lead to deformations of the entire annular disk. The annular disk, when acted upon by force, can in particular deflect away from the vehicle tire, so that the tire side wall is at this point no longer protected.
It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a side-wall protection element for vehicle tires that can optimally protect a tire side wall even under harsh conditions and that can be produced economically and is easy to install.
This object is according to the invention satisfied by an aforementioned shield-shaped side-wall protection element for a vehicle tire, comprising a radially inner base, with an outer edge which forms the radially outer end and which extends in a circumferential direction, and a shield segment which extends from the outer edge at least to the base, where the outer edge is at least partially offset axially inward from the base.
The axial offset inwardly of at least a portion of the outer edge from the base ensures that a load acting radially inwardly does not lead to the side-wall protection element moving away from the tire side wall. Such a load occurs, for example, when the vehicle tire moves across boulders and the side-wall protection element with its outer edge strikes an object such as a stone.
For the above-mentioned protective device for vehicle tires, the object of the invention is satisfied by a protective device for vehicle tires comprising a plurality of shield-shaped side-wall protection elements according to the invention arranged overlapping in the manner of shingles in a circumferential direction.
A protective device which is composed of a plurality of shield-shaped side-wall protection elements prevents that a load acting upon one of the side-wall protection elements is transferred to all other side-wall protection elements. The shingled overlap also ensures optimum coverage of the tire side wall to be protected.
The solution according to the invention can be further improved by various embodiments that are advantageous on their own and can be combined at random. These embodiments and the advantages associated therewith shall be described below.